March 18-24

morning sun

It was a busy after taking a short break and returning from the previous week’s town meetings on Tuesday. On Wednesday we greeted the arrival of Spring and enjoyed an afternoon visit with Michael and Sally Blumenthal-McGannon, who were visiting from their home in Aptos, CA. 

Sally & Michael

The Indralaya Board was in camp on Saturday for a day long meeting. In addition to allocating funds to purchase new chairs for the dining hall, the Board also reviewed the various Spring projects that are underway and reviewed the year end financial results for 2012. 

Following up on a question that had arisen during the Vancouver town meeting, the Board also set a date for the 2013 Friends of Indralaya annual meeting. The meeting will be held on Saturday, May 25, which coincides with the Memorial Day work party. All are welcome to attend and we hope to see you then!

afternoon sun

March 11-17

Let Us Pray

There are now over 500 people registered for upcoming 2013 programs and work parties. At this point, there is still room to register for all programs, but there are several for which we will soon begin wait lists if registration continues at its current pace: Family Week Two, Deep Singing, Yoga, Pat Moffit-Cook’s Sound weekend and the Rose, Hawthorn and Apple retreat.

On Saturday we left Orcas Island and made our way to Bellingham for the first of two ‘Indralaya town meetings’ that had been scheduled for the weekend. The idea of these town meetings grows out of a recognition that while Indralaya is a place with a specific physical setting and geographic location, it is also a place that resides in the hearts of those who come here. And that as the camp has expanded its activities over the years, it is more difficult to meet and interact with everyone else who feels a connection with the place. So a central idea behind the town meetings is that there is a benefit in bringing people together to meet each other while also learning about some of the projects and activities that are currently underway at camp.

On our way to the meetings, we stopped for a visit with Phyllis Roberts at the assisted living center where she lives in Burlington. Phyllis is the mother of Wendy Roberts and camp treasurer Kelly Bachman. She is a remarkably talented artist who has contributed to Indralaya in many ways over the years. During our visit she gave us a notebook containing transcriptions that she and her mother had done of talks that Fritz Kunz gave during the summer of 1957.  This week she is celebrating her 92nd birthday - 

Happy Birthday Phyllis!

Kelly & Phyllis

From there it was on to Bellingham for the first town meeting, which was held in the Commons Room at Bellingham Co-housing and attended by about 20 people. The next day we continued on to Vancouver, and the home of Michael and Geri Barnes, where about 15 people gathered on Sunday afternoon. There was opportunity for dialogue and interaction at both meetings. Many of those attending expressed the hope that these outreach efforts would continue in future years.

Bellingham town meeting participants

March 3-10

This week we had the annual inspection of the Indralaya septic system. Everything checked out in good shape. The system is actually composed of six different sub-systems that serve different areas of the camp.

The largest of the sub-systems is also the newest. This project was a significant change from the old gravity-based systems that it replaced. All of the water is pumped to holding tanks and eventually ends up in a large drainfield that is located in the eastern half of the meadow.

meadow drainfield

 waste water distribution box near the teepee

It was installed in 2002 at a cost of $62,000, and processes waste water from the dining hall, the waterfront cabins, the library, roundhouse, Spruce, Apple and Wisteria cabins. It also includes a 1,000 gallon grease trap that is dedicated solely to water that comes from the kitchen sinks. 

kitchen grease trap lids

holding tanks near the roundhouse & library

waterfront septic tank lids and pump control panel near Ocean Spray

The other five sub-systems serve individual buildings: the Upper Nessie, the Solarium, the RMC, Juniper cabin, and Moss cabin.

upper nessie

Before any septic was installed, there were several outhouses in various locations around the camp. The last of these old outhouses, which had not been in service for many years, was located just above Madrona cabin. It was finally demolished 8 or 9 years ago during one of the family weeks.

There are any number of stories about the trials and tribulations of the septic system over the years. For many years, the septic system was tended by the legendary Ray family, including Wilma Ray and her son Wesley.

There is one well known story about the time the septic tanks in front of what was then the new dining hall failed just at the peak of the summer season. Wilma advised camp manager John Abbenhouse that the quickest way to resolve the problem would be to pump the tanks and deposit the waste somewhere in the forest (the times were clearly different than they are now!). John is said to have had a gleam in his eye as he envisioned the beautiful compost that would one day be available for the garden from this once in a lifetime opportunity. Unfortunately the exact location of the deposit was forgotten over the years and to the best of our knowledge, this particular treasure still lies somewhere out in the forest unused and neglected.

outside the dining hall

Many of today’s campers are familiar with the odor that arises near the solarium. Sometimes it is the food waste in the worm beds that we smell, sometimes it is something else. This is probably the oldest of the current sub-systems and is the only one for which the tank lids are still the old-style concrete blocks. Lifting these lids out is some true heavy lifting.

the solarium 

The septic tank at Moss cabin is an egg-shaped plastic tank that was installed during a work party. Trent Blackburn spent many hours hand digging the new hole for the tank and eventually reached the bedrock underlying the soil. As a result, the top of the tank sticks out of the ground about 1 or 2 feet and the soil has been built up around it.

plastic tank at Moss Cabin

I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief tour of this critical component of the Indralaya infrastructure. Coming next week, a report on the Indralaya town meetings that are being held in Bellingham and Vancouver this coming weekend.

February 25 - March 3

Buddha Field 9

A Day Late
This week, “this week” is being posted on Tuesday as I was away attending a weekend workshop led by R.J. Stewart and Anastacia Nutt. It was great to get back to Orcas after a week away, and to see the crocuses beginning to come up through the soil. Leonie was here at Indralaya and spent a fair amount of time getting things started in the garden. More pictures next week.

Adjö Sverige? (Goodbye Sweden?)
On the inner planes of the blogorealms, last week’s shout out to the person(s) in Sweden who had been so avidly visiting this site seems to have resulted in scaring them off - sorry about that, it wasn't the intention! Or maybe you’ve just moved to some other country, as Germany seems to be picking up where Sweden left off. In any case, anyone, please feel welcome to visit this blog, the Indralaya website, and, of course, Indralaya itself...

February 18-24

It has been a relatively quiet week at Indralaya, and this provided an opportunity to devote some time to laying the groundwork for upcoming activities and programs. We are looking forward to two upcoming  “Indralaya on the Road” events next month. We will be holding town meetings in Bellingham on March 16 from 3:30 to 5:30 and in Vancouver on the 17th from 4:00-6:00.  A core idea behind these events is that there is a dimension of Indralaya that goes beyond its physical (or geographic) location and that it is beneficial to bring together people involved in the camp community to enjoy each others company. All are welcome - if you would like more information, please let us know.

On Friday, Leonie headed to Seattle for a meeting. I joined her on Saturday for a weekend in town, and will be here for the entire week, taking some break time and attending an RJ Stewart workshop next weekend.

Hej Sverige  (Hello Sweden)
Since beginning this blog roughly two and a half years ago, one of the unanticipated and surprising aspects of has been to directly experience and observe the global reach of the internet.  In the past few weeks, there has been a significant upsurge in viewing of this blog from Sweden. For the past month, there have been more page views from Sweden than from any other country outside the United States. We’d like to know more about our global observers and invite anyone who would like to share who they are and where they live in the comment section.

February 11-17

a sun dappled meadow greets the start of the new season ...

It was a beautiful beginning to the 2013 Indralaya season as people began arriving on Friday for the President’s Day Weekend Work Party. A time for beginning again as the wheel of the seasons turns and the first tender shoots of the year to come begin to reveal themselves. 

Approximately 20 participants were on hand through the weekend. Plenty of good work was done, friendships and family connections were renewed, good food was consumed, and a foundation was set for the season that lies ahead. 

Bella rings the first bell of the season

Lars shows off his stylin’ new Indralaya apron

Joe was everywhere

Joe Macari had a hand in many of the weekend’s projects, including re-plumbing the drain under the vegetable washing sink to comply with new Health Department regulations and cleaning the kitchen hood fan. He also helped kick around ideas for heating the teepee, built the morning fire in the dining hall. On Sunday night, Joe became the newest life member of the Friends of Indralaya.

  

completed cupcake puzzle

A cupcake theme emerged over the course of the weekend. As at most work parties, a jigsaw puzzle was begun on Friday night. Someone choose the above 1000-piece puzzle to work on, which gradually led to a decision to have cupcakes for desert on Saturday night. The cupcakes then helped provide the fuel that was needed to complete the puzzle on Sunday night. Could the cupcake theme continue to develop over the course of the coming year? Only time will tell...

Saturday cupcake

hood fan cupcake koan

... and so we start again

  

February 4-10

Meg, Jen, Andy, Leonie & Minor

For the past few years, we've used a mail service to send out the annual program catalog and it has taken up to six weeks it to reach Canadian mail boxes. This year we decided to do it ourselves, so on Monday, we left for an overnight trip to Vancouver BC, where we mailed the 2013 program to the 500-plus people and families from Canada who are on the Indralaya mail list. It was heartening to hear that it was arriving in people’s mailboxes within the next few days.

Back at Indralaya, Leonie led an interesting discussion of a theosophical classic “At the Feet of the Master” during the Wednesday night study group. Meanwhile, I was busy processing the initial week of registrations; a process that took the better part of three full days, with 320 people already registered for upcoming programs.

the happily married couple

Over the weekend, we noted an historic milestone as Indralaya hosted its first same-sex marriage. Megan Sather and Jen Moffat legally formalized their relationship in a simple ceremony that involved walking the labyrinth and joining us for celebratory waffles at the RMC.